Custody case: Child chooses mother in open court

BHOPAL: The Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh high court held a hearing in open court in a child custody case and overruled a lower court’s verdict granting custody of a three-year-old to the father after seeing the boy’s fondness for the mother.

This comes at the times when most courts are holding virtual hearings because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The mother, a resident of Ujjain district, filed a petition before the Indore bench of the high court on January 14 against the Mandsaur district family court’s order on January 6, handing custody of the child to his father under The Hindu Minority & Guardianship Act, 1956.

The matter was taken up through a video conference on June 25 and the court directed the father to ensure the presence of the child in the court next time.

In its judgment on July 1, justice SC Sharma said: “The order dated January 6, 2020 passed by the learned principal judge reveals that for the last six months, the child was residing with his father, grandfather and grandmother and after discussing various judgments of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, the presiding officer has observed that at this stage if the child is separated from his father, it might adversely affect the mental status of the child.” He added that the open court hearing, the child was permitted to go to the mother and “he started playing with her.”

Granting custody of the child, the court ordered that she would allow the father to meet him every alternative Saturday.HTC